God demonstrated how faith works when he created the world. Faith, like love is an action word. He spoke everything into existence. That was the “action” He took to produce all of creation.
Hebrews 11:6 Without faith it is impossible to please God.
Faith is the basis of our relationship with God. Faith is doing. Faith is creating. Faith is vision. God had a vision prior to creating the earth and then He spoke it into existence. It is the same with us. We get an idea, a vision and then we speak our plans out loud or we “say” that we will do “this” or “that.” Then we begin taking action to produce the end result. Faith without actions does not produce results. This is how faith works – in a nutshell. Nothing complicated.
So what causes us to not have faith? What causes our faith not to work? Sometimes we think we are acting in faith, and we may be doing all we know, but there are things that can actually hinder your faith. Sin is one of them. Strife is another. Strife is ill feelings in your heart, bitterness or anger toward another person. Heart issues stop faith from producing.
When you ask God for something, Jesus says believe when you pray and don’t doubt and you will have it. Jesus also said: “If you abide in me and my word abides in you, you shall ask whatever you will and it will be done for you.” If Jesus really lives in you, there is no room for doubt. And if He lives in you, His word is in you. That means you operate by His word and His power.
Hebrews 10:36 “Ye have need of patience that after you have done the will of God, ye shall receive the promise.”
Whatever it is you want from God after you have prayed for it. Find out what He requires you to do regarding the thing you asked for. Listen for His answer. Do what He said. Then have patience. Sometimes what He requires you to do takes you through a certain process and after you complete it, you will have what you asked for.
If you want God to bless you with a profitable business, He may require you to educate yourself first, then do certain steps and finally implement your marketing plan. You won’t see profit until after you have done all that is required.
Finally, our faith doesn’t work if our conscious condemns us. If our conscious condemns us or lets just say if we have a guilty conscious, we don’t think we deserve the best. What causes your conscious condemn you? Things you did in the past can cause you to feel unworthy. Sin can cause you to feel unworthy. People intimidating you can cause you to feel unworthy.
For sin, the bible says God is faithful and just to forgive us. Once we are forgiven, we have to be bold about what we want and believe we deserve it. Every other negative feeling that would cause us to feel unworthy are lies. You have to know that you deserve the best. That is important. Otherwise feelings of doubt will creep in and you won’t believe it will happen for you. If you remain in God’s word, you can have so much confidence and know that if He grants anyone what they want, it will be you.
Many times we have been misled to think we are only human and that it is not possible to live fully and perfectly for God. But we can abide – live totally by – live totally for – live totally in God, and obey His will. Then we can be confident in our requests of God. This then, is how faith works: it works by our confidence in God. Our confidence in God comes when we are obedient to His word.